Aromanians (Aromanian: Rrãmãnji, Armãnji[11]) or Vlachs, are a Latin people native in the southern Balkans; traditionally living in northern and central Greece, southern Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, and south-western Bulgaria. An older term used for them is Macedo-Romanians. Especially in Greece, the term Vlachs (Vlachoi) is widespread; this term is sometimes used outside Greece to encompass all Latin-descended peoples of the Balkans, including the modern-day Romanians. Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinized population of the Balkans.[12]

The Aromanians speak Aromanian, a Latin-derived language similar to Romanian, which has many slightly varying dialects of its own.[13] It descends from the vulgar Latin spoken by the Paleo-Balkan peoples subsequent to their Romanization. It is a mix of domestic and Latin language with additional influences from other surrounding languages of the Balkans, such as Bulgarian, Greek and Albanian.[14]

The terms Aromanian or Vlach are both exonyms; the first one is modern, the second medieval. The Aromanians call themselves Rrãmãnji or Armãnji, depending on which of the to dialectal groups they belong, and identify as part of the fara armãneascã ("Aromanian tribe") or the populu armãnescu ("Aromanian people").[11]

The term Aromanian derives directly from the Latin Romanus, meaning Roman citizen. The initial a- is a regular epenthetic vowel, occurring when certain consonant clusters are formed, and it is not, as folk etymology sometimes has it, related to the negative or privative a- of Greek (also occurring in Latin words of Greek origin).

The term Vlach was used in the Medieval Balkans, as an exonym for all the Romanic (Latinised) people of the region, but nowadays is commonly used for the Aromanians and Meglenites (Romanians being named Vlachs only in Serbia and Bulgaria). The term Vlach has had its form changed into the following languages: Greek Vlachoi/Βλάχοι, Albanian Vllehë, Bulgarian Vlasi/Bласи, SerbianVlasi/Власu, TurkishUlahlar. It is noteworthy that the term Vlach also meant "bandit" or "rebel" in the Ottoman medieval historiography. Vlach was further a name used by the Ottomans to denote Christians in Bosnia.

They also, have several nicknames depending on the country where they are living.

In Greece:

Gramustians and Pindians are nicknamed Koutsovlachs (Greek Κουτσόβλαχοι). This term is sometimes, but not always, taken as derogatory, as the first element of this term is from the Greek koutso- (κουτσό-) meaning 'lame'. This name has been noticed also among the Slavic peoples, especially in the folk stories.[15] Following a Turkish etymology where küçük means "little" they are the smaller group of Vlachs as opposed to the more numerous Vlachs (Daco-Romanians).

Farsherots, from Frashër (Albania), Moscopole and Muzachia are nicknamed "Frashariotes" or Arvanitovlachs (Greek Αρβανιτοβλαχοι), meaning "Albanian Vlachs" referring to their place of origin.[16] Most of the Frashariotes are characterized also as "Greek-Vlach North-Epirotes" because frequently they settle in the Greek territory, because of historical conditions.[17]

In the South Slavic countries, such as Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, the nicknames used to refer to the Aromanians are usually Vlasi (south-Slavic for vallachians; vlachs) and Tsintsar (also spelled tzintzar, cincar or similar), which is derived from the way the Aromanians pronounce the word meaning five, tsintsi.

Albanians use their own nicknames to refer to the Aromanians, such as; Vllah/Vlleh; and also as chobans, (derived from Albanian word Çobenj; Çoban meaning pastoral mountain folk and shepherd. The word stems from Turkish çoban, which means "shepherd".

It is hypothesized that the Vlachs originated from the Roman colonisation of the Balkans and are the descendants of Latinised native peoples and of the Roman legionaries who had settled in the Balkans. The fact that the Roman colonisation of Epirus and Macedonia began earlier and lasted longer than that of Dacia would suggest that the Aromanian Vlachs may have preceded the Romanians in Balkan history.

There are many theories regarding the origins of the Aromanians. In Greece, some scholars consider them to be descended from a local Greek population that was deeply Latinised immediately following the Roman conquest of Greece, or later, during the first centuries of the Byzantine Empire when Latin continued to be the official language. On the contrary, in other neighbouring countries Aromanians are considered to be the descendants of Thracian peoples who moved into the mountains of the southern Balkans after the Avar and Slavic invasions. To be noted that Byzantine chroniclers have described Aromanians as descending from Thracian tribes; one of them being the Bessi.[18]

In total, the main theories regarding the origins of Aromanians describe them as:

or Roman colonists and soldiers, who would receive agricultural lands as payments for their services,

It is clear, however, that until the 7th, 8th or 9th centuries CE, Romanians and Aromanians spoke the same eastern variant of the Balkan Vulgar Latin, also known as Eastern Romance language. Linguists who support the Romanian theory declare that the Aromanian, Meglenian and Istroromanian languages are dialects of Proto-Romanian. This term was not accepted by Greek linguists, because it only denoted a form of the Romanian language, and thus supports only the Romanian theory. This in fact puts the other two languages which developed from this form of Vulgar Latin - the Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian languages - in the same position as Aromanian. Some modern Serbian linguists, during former Yugoslavia, believed that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region of Istria about 1,000 (or 600) years ago from Transylvania.[19][20]

In reality, in none of the three theories regarding the origin of Aromanians, can the term "Proto Romanian" be taken to encompass either the Aromanian nor the Meglenian language, because this term only applies to the language spoken by the ancestors of the modern Romanians (Dacians and Getae). However even here, the term "Proto Romanian" would be misleading, because Dacians and Getae represented only a part of the Thracian people in the Balkans, (Aromanians and Meglens being descendants of Epirots and Macedonians). So, the correct term to include all Latin languages spoken in Balkans at that time is the term, Balkan Vulgar Latin or Eastern Romance languages.[citation needed]

Aromanians within the Balkan nationalisms of the 19th and 20th centuries[edit]

A distinct Aromanian consciousness was not developed until the 19th century, and was influenced by the rise of other national movements in the Balkans. Until then, the Aromanians, as Eastern Orthodox Christians, were subsumed with other ethnic groups into the wider ethnoreligious group of the "Romans" (in Greek Rhomaioi, after the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire), which in Ottoman times formed the distinct Rum millet.[23] The Rum milletwas headed by the Greek-dominated Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Greek language was used as a lingua franca among Balkan Orthodox Christians throughout the 17th–19th centuries. As a result, wealthy, urbanized Aromanians were culturally hellenized and played a major role in the dissemination of Greek language and culture; indeed, the first book written in Aromanian was written in the Greek alphabet and aimed at spreading Greek among Aromanian-speakers.[24]

Map showing areas with Romanian schools for Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians in the Ottoman Empire (1886)

By the early 19th century, however, the distinct Latin-derived nature of the Aromanian language began to be studied in a series of grammars and language booklets.[25] In 1815, the Aromanians of Budapest requested permission to use their language in liturgy, but it was turned down by the local metropolitan.[25]

Following the establishment of independent Romania and the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the 1860s, the Aromanians increasingly began to come under the influence of the Romanian national movement. Although vehemently opposed by the Greek church, the Romanians established an extensive state-sponsored cultural and educative network in the southern Balkans: the first Romanian school was established in 1864, and by the early 20th century, there were 100 Romanian churches and 106 schools with 4,000 pupils and 300 teachers.[28] As a result, Aromanians were divided into two main factions, one pro-Greek, the other pro-Romanian; and a smaller focusing exclusively on its Aromanian identity.[23]

With the support of the Great Powers, and especially Austria-Hungary, the "Aromanian-Romanian movement" culminated in the recognition of the Aromanians as a distinct millet (Ullah millet) by the Ottoman Empire on 22 May 1905, with corresponding freedoms of worship and education in their own language.[29] Nevertheless, due to the advanced assimilation of the Aromanians, this came too late to lead to the creation of a distinct Aromanian national identity; indeed, as Gustav Weigand noted in 1897, most Aromanians were not only indifferent, but actively hostile to their own national movement.[30]

At the same time, the Greek–Romanian antagonism over Aromanian loyalties intensified with the armed Macedonian Struggle, leading to the rupture of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1906. During the Macedonian Struggle, most Aromanians participated on the "patriarchist" (pro-Greek) side, but some sided with the "exarchists" (pro-Bulgarians).[29] However, following the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, Romanian interest waned, and when it revived in the 1920s it was designed more towards encouraging the Romanians' "Macedonian brothers" to emigrate to Southern Dobruja, where there were strong non-Romanian minorities.[30]

The date of the Ottoman irade of 22 May 1905 has been adopted in recent times by Aromanians in Albania, Australia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia as the "National Day of the Aromanians", but notably not in Greece or among the Aromanians in the Greek diaspora.[31]

In modern times, Aromanians generally have adopted the dominant national culture, often with a dual identity as both Aromanian and Greek/Albanian/Bulgarian/etc.[32] Greek-identifying Aromanians are also found outside the borders of Greece among many Aromanians in southern Albania and in towns all over the Balkans,[31] while Aromanians identifying as Romanians are still to be found in areas where Romanian schools were active.[32] There are also many Aromanians who identify themselves as solely Aromanian, even, as in the case of the Cincars, when they no longer speak the language. Such groups are to be found in southwestern Albania, the eastern parts of the Republic of Macedonia, the Aromanians who immigrated to Romania in 1940, and in Greece in the Veria and Grevena areas and in Athens.[31]

In Greece, Aromanians are not recognised as an ethnic but as a linguistic minority and, like the Arvanites, have been indistinguishable in many respects from other Greeks since the 19th century.[33][34] Although Greek Aromanians would differentiate themselves from native Greek speakers (Grets) when speaking in Aromanian, most still consider themselves part of the broader Greek nation (Elini, Hellenes), which also encompasses other linguistic minorities such as the Arvanites or the Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia.[35] Greek Aromanians have long been associated with the Greek national state, actively participated in the Greek Struggle for Independence, and have obtained very important positions in government.[36] Aromanians have been very influential in Greek politics, business and the army. Revolutionary Rigas Feraios,[37] Prime Minister Ioannis Kolettis,[38] billionaire and benefactor Evangelos Zappas, Field Marshal and later Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos, and conservative politician Evangelos Averoff[39] were all Vlachs.

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of Aromanians in Greece today. The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 estimated their number between 150,000 and 200,000, but the last two censuses to differentiate between Christian minority groups, in 1940 and 1951, showed 26,750 and 22,736 Vlachs respectively.[35] Estimates on the number of Aromanians in Greece range between 40,000[3] and 200,000.[40] Aromanian nationalists in Greece put the number as high as 600,000, but Thede Kahl estimates the total number of people with Aromanian origin who still understand the language as no more than 300,000, with the number of fluent speakers under 100,000.[35]

Generally, the use of the minority languages has been discouraged in Greece,[41] although recently, there have been efforts to preserve the endangered languages (including Aromanian) of Greece.

Since 1994, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki offers beginners' and advanced courses in "Koutsovlach", and cultural festivals with over 40,000 participants—the largest Aromanian cultural gatherings in the world—regularly take place in Metsovo.[42] Nevertheless, there are no exclusively Aromanian newspapers, and the Aromanian language is almost totally absent from television.[42] Indeed, although as of 2002 there were over 200 Vlach cultural associations in Greece, many did not even feature the term "Vlach" in their titles, and only a few are active in preserving the Aromanian language.[42]

However, the largest Aromanian group in Greece (and across the world), the Pan-Hellenic Union of Cultural Associations of Vlachs in Greece,[42] has repeatedly rejected the classification of Aromanian as a minority language or the Vlachs as an ethnic identity, considering the Aromanians as an "integral part of Hellenism".[44][45][46]

The Aromanian (Vlach) Cultural Society, which is associated with the fringe figure Sotiris Bletsas, is represented on the Member State Committee of the European Bureau for Lesser Spoken Languages in Greece.[47] Bletsas and his small group have no popular support whatsoever in Greece, and have been a source of annoyance to the majority of Aromanians.[48]

Aromanians form a majority or a substantial minority in the settlement

Spread of Aromanians in the Republic of Macedonia:

Localities where Aromanians are an officially recognised minority group

Other localities with an Aromanian population

Areas where Megleno-Romanians are concentrated

There is a large Aromanian community in Albania, which is also called Vlach Community (Albanian: vllah or çoban), specifically in the southern and central regions of the country. Various scholars placed the number of Albanian Aromanians at up to 200,000.[5] There are currently timid attempts to establish education in their native language in the town of Divjaka. The Aromanians, under the name "Vlachs", are a recognized cultural minority in the Albanian law.[49]

For the last years there seems to be a renewal of the former policies of supporting and sponsoring of Romanian schools for Aromanians of Albania. As a recent article in the Romanian media points out, the kindergarten, primary and secondary schools in the Albanian town of Divjaka where the local Albanian Aromanians pupils are taught classes both in Aromanian and Romanian were granted substantial help directly from the Romanian government. The only Aromanian language church in Albania, the 'Schimbarea la fata' of Korçë (Curceau in Aromanian) was given 2 billion lei help from the Romanian government too. Many of the Albanian Aromanians (Arvanito Vlachs) have immigrated to Greece, since they are considered in Greece part of the Greek minority in Albania.[50]

A minority of Aromanians in Southern Albania are Bektashi Muslim, unlike the majority of Aromanians who are Orthodox Christian (as well as the majority of Albanians who are also Orthodox Christian in many parts of the region).

According to official government figures (census 2002), there are 9,695 Aromanians or Vlachs, as they are officially called in the Republic of Macedonia. According to the census of 1994 there were 8,467 Vlachs, 6,392 in 1981 and 8,669 in 1953.[52] Aromanians are recognized as an ethnic minority, and are hence represented in Parliament and enjoy ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious rights and the right to education in their language.

They have also received financial support from the Romanian government, which made recognition of the Republic of Macedonia's independence conditional on the extension of minority rights to the Aromanians[citation needed]. There are Aromanian cultural societies and associations such as the Union for Aromanian Culture from the Republic of Macedonia, The Aromanian League of the Republic of Macedonia, The International League of Aromanians, Comuna Armãneascã ("Frats Manachia", The Aromanian Community Manachia Brothers in Bitola), Partia-a Armãnjlor di tu Machedonia (The Party of the Aromanians from the Republic of Macedonia) and Unia Democraticã-a Armãnjlor di tu Machedonia (The Democratic Union of the Aromanians from the Republic of Macedonia).

There are Aromanian classes provided in primary schools and the state funds some Aromanian published works (magazines and books) as well as works that cover Aromanian culture, language and history. The latter is mostly done by the first Aromanian Scientific Society, "Constantin Belemace" in Skopje, which has organized symposiums on Aromanian history and has published papers from them. According to the last census, there were 9,596 Aromanians (0.48% of the total population). There are concentrations in Kruševo 1020 (20%), Štip 2074 (4.3%), Bitola 1270 (1.3%), Struga 656 (1%), Sveti Nikole 238 (1.4%), Kisela Voda 647 (1.1%) and Skopje 2557 (0.5%).[53]

Most of the Aromanians in the Sofia region are descendants of Macedonia and northern Greek emigrants who arrived between 1850 and 1914.[54]

In Bulgaria most Aromanians were concentrated in the region south-west of Sofia, in the region called Pirin, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913. Due to this reason, a large number of these Aromanians moved to Southern Dobruja, part of the Kingdom of Romania after the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913. After the reinclusion of Southern Dobruja in Bulgaria with the Treaty of Craiova of 1940, most moved to Northern Dobruja. Another group moved to northern Greece. Nowadays, the largest group of Aromanians in Bulgaria is found in the southern mountainous area, around Peshtera. Most Aromanians in Bulgaria originate from Gramos, with some from Macedonia, Pindus and Moscopole.[55]

After the fall of communism in 1989, Aromanians, Romanians and Vlachs have started initiatives to organize themselves under one common association.[56][57][58]

According to the 1926 official census, there were: 69,080 Romanians, 5,324 Aromanians, 3,777 Cutzovlachs, and 1,551 Tsintsars.[citation needed]

According to the 2001 census, there are 1,088 Romanians and 10,566 Vlachs in Bulgaria.[59] The last figure includes Romanian and Aromanian speakers.

Since the Middle Ages, due to the Turkish occupation and the destruction of their cities, such as Moscopole, Gramoshtea, Linotopi and later on Kruševo, many Aromanians fled their native homelands in the Balkans to settle the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which had a similar language and a certain degree of autonomy from the Turks. These immigrant Aromanians were more or less assimilated into the Romanian population.

In 1925, 47 years after Dobruja was incorporated into Romania, King Ferdinand gave the Aromanians land and privilleges to settle in this region, which resulted in a significant migration of Aromanians into Romania. Today, the 25% of the population of the region are descendants of Aromanian immigrants (especially from Thessaly, Epirus, Greek Macedonia and Vardar Macedonia).[citation needed]

There are currently between 50,000 and 100,000 Aromanians in Romania, most of which are concentrated in Dobruja.[citation needed] According to the Union for Aromanian Language and Culture there are some 100,000 Aromanians in Romania.[citation needed] Some Aromanian associations even place the total number of people of Aromanian descent in Romania as high as 250,000.[citation needed] Due to their cultural closeness to ethnic Romanians, most of them do not consider themselves to be a distinct ethnic minority but rather a "cultural minority".[citation needed]

Recently, there has been a growing movement in Romania, both by Aromanians and by Romanian lawmakers, to recognize the Aromanians either as a separate cultural group or as a separate ethnic group, and extend to them the rights of other minorities in Romania, such as mother-tongue education and representatives in parliament.

The Aromanians, known as Cincari (Цинцари), migrated to Serbia in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They most often were bilingual in Greek, and were often called "Greeks" (Grci). They were influential in the forming of Serbian statehood, having contributed with rebel fighters, merchants, and educated people. Many Greek-Aromanians (Грко-Цинцари) came to Serbia with Alija Gušanac as krdžalije, mercenaries, and did later join the Serbian Revolution (1804–17). Some of the notable rebels include Konda Bimbaša and Papazogli.[60] Among the notable people of Aromanian descent are playwright Jovan Sterija Popović (1806–1856), novelist Branislav Nušić (1864–1938), and possibly politician Nikola Pašić (1845–1926).

The majority of Serbian people of Aromanian descent do not speak Aromanian and espouse a Serb identity. They live in Niš, Belgrade and some smaller communities of Southern Serbia. A small Aromanian settlement is situated in Knjaževac. An Aromanian association named "Lunjina" was founded in Belgrade in 1991. According to the 2011 census, there were 243 Serbian citizens that identified as Cincari.[61]

In Germany, at Freiburg, is situated one of the most important Aromanian organisations, the Union for Culture and Language of the Aromanians, and one of the largest libraries in the Aromanian language.

In the United States, The Society Fãrshãrotul, is one of the oldest and most known associations of Aromanians, founded in 1903 by Nicolae Cican, an Aromanian native of Albania.

In France, the Aromanians are grouped in the Trã Armãnami cultural association.

Aromanians may have settled in Turkey due to the influence of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. However, there are a small number of any Aromanians living in Turkey.[citation needed]

^Winnifrith T.J. The Vlachs: The history of aBalkan people, St. Matin's Press, N. York, p. 35, footnote 11.: "P. Neiescu, "Recherches dialectales" ... Describing the position before the war, Tamas locates the Vlachs in four main areas, ... those near Frasher, shepherds living in nine villages ..."